Fun hike from the Pantoll ranger station. A little foggy at the bottom, started clearing up about a mile from the summit. Great views, but a bit too crowded for my tastes. Took the Nora and Matt Davis trails down for a little variety. About a 10 mile round trip.

Ok, so I have to be honest that I hate this mountain, so the only way I would agree to hike it was at loopdedo's suggestion that we hike it from sea level on one of the rainiest days ever (no people). So I agreed and set off in my jeans. Ok that was a bad idea, but we did it, and couldnt see a lick from the top. Thats the only way I would ever want to hike on this mountain - I'm a mountain snob and this one doesnt cut it.

Incredible views. Once the Oakland Hills had a layer of fresh snow, and another time it was the classic Golden Gate Bridge towers coming out of the fog. Awesome. I was without camera both times, but the memory is still there.

Started out late in the day at the parking lot by the Mountain House Inn. Headed up the only really steep section from the fire house to the Old Railroad Grade. Follow that up around the mountain, by the Mountain Top lodge, and on to the summit. Great views of the city and the Farallon Islands. Came back down the Fern Creek trail. Entire route was 3.5 hours and a hair under 7 miles.

I did a quick early morning trek for a first visit to Mount Tamalpais, a bay area favorite. I started at 7:18 am from the Mill Valley trailhead, tried to follow the creek beds mostly, saw the Indian Rock, saw the Great Wall of Mount Tam, climbed the Great Rock Wall of Mount Tam (I guess I got a bit off course somewhere - I don't think you're supposed to rock climb to the summit), summitted at 9:18, hung out around the fire tower, took some pictures of mountains in the distance that I couldn't identify, left the summit at 9:58 and returned to my car at 10:58 via a side trip to the Railway Plank Trail. My GPS claimed the trip up was 1.49 miles and the trip down was 2.47 miles. I read somewhere on the web that it was 1km from trailhead to peak, I don't know what route that is, but I want to take it, the GPS says trailhead to peak straight is 0.97 miles. No people on the trail on the way up, about 4 people at the summit area, about 60 people on the trail on the way down!

Met Marianne at Stinson Beach bright and early Sunday morning. We left @ 10.07, taking the Dipsea to the Steep Ravine trail.

After reaching Pantoll, we took the R & H to the Easy Grade trail, arriving at the Mountain Theater, which I'd wanted to check out for a while (seems like it would be pretty cool to check out a performance there). We took the Rock Spring trail to the W Point Inn (also pretty cool- only accessible by bike or foot [maybe horse]). From there we took the RR Grade fire road to the Fern Creek trail, which finally took us to the summit, where we arrived @ about 14.30.

It was a beautiful day, ~80 deg F, clear except for some clouds over the ocean, and views of the Bay, SF, & Mt. Diablo were abundant. I was glad that it was so nice for Marianne's first time on the summit (my first time sucked, as all I could see were clouds!). We hung out on the top for ~1/2 an hour, and did some bouldering on the rocks, earning bonus points based on a system devised by some little kid up there (I came up with the most).

We headed back down to Pantoll the same way we came, but took the Matt Davis trail to Stinson Beach, getting there right as it got dark, and arriving at that one seafood restaurant on the ocean-side of the road with the patio @ 18.45. We had a great dinner, going to the beach afterwards.

I am really glad my long-time goal of going from beach to summit of Mt. Tam' turned out so well- a great and memorable trip with a wonderful person!

got all the gear ready a few days before. began ascent early morning, reached peak around mid-day. no injuries or accidents. descent just as succesful. slept well. friends like to laugh at me about this, but i guarantee it was worth it :-)

Kim and I finally got around to hiking to Mount Tam's summit. We were dogsitting "Lion" and wanted to tire her out. This was a decidedly casual affair, as evidenced by my corduroy pants and wool sweater. The 1700-foot climb up the Temelpa trail was short and steep--just the way I like to ascend a mountain. Only a few cars in the parking lot on an oddly hazy Christmas Eve.

Another gorgeous sunny day in the Bay Area.. perfect day to climb mountains! We parked at the Phoenix Lake trailhead and climbed to the summit. It took us 3 hours to reach the top, and 5 hours for the round-trip. We measured round-trip trail length to be around 12 miles. Take plenty of water with you - there are no sources until the summit!

We opted to not take the usual traverse from the upper parking lot to the summit, instead taking a wooded trail that then lead to a Class II section that we're still not sure if it was a trail or just drainage :)

Whatever it was it definitely was fun as the weather deteriorated as we got there. Right as we parked, there was a tremendous view of San Francisco below our feet - stunning. It only lasted literally 15 seconds as the clouds rushed in immediately and the rain started.

As we took this "trail" to the top where the normal public trails are, the rain and wind really whipped up into a fury. We reach one ridge towards the top after climbing straight up on this Class II gully and though we couldn't tell it since all we saw in front of us was whiteout, we could tell that we were staring straight towards the ocean as the rain was hitting us near horizontally.

We eventually found the public trail and made it up to the summit with the old structure. Very nice area and beautiful views when the weather cooperates.

I spent one year at UC Berkeley law school and once I bked up Mt. Tamalpais which was pretty nice. All the way from SF over the Golden Gate Bridge to the top. The views of the city are quite impressive (perhaps I'll do some scans, I have the negatives somewhere).

How often do you get the summit of Mount Tam all to yourself? When there's no view and it's raining ;-) I don't remember why I was so insistent to do this but I was the only one in the parking lot that day, there was about 25 foot visibility, it was raining, and I didn't have any waterproof gear - just a nylon jacket. I made it up almost to way up to the top when I couldn't figure out where the trail went so I started crawling through the wet bushes. After making it to the top, I didn't want to get lost coming down so I crawled through the bushes out again. Interesting trip - haven't made it back yet though I've been to Muir Woods and Point Reyes several times which I like better. There's a reason why they are "Muir Woods National Monument" and "Point Reyes National Seashore" :-) I'll read the page in a bit and maybe it will inspire me to go again. I've heard Mount Tam is primarily good for mountain biking which I'll have to try out some time - of course it will be different than Utah slickrock ;-) The Slickrock Trail ... mmm ... I'll have to go back and do that again someday.